Shiite rebels shell Yemen president's home, take over palace

Houthi Shiite Yemeni gather while guarding a street leading to the presidential palace Tuesday in Sanaa, Yemen. Yemen's U.S.-backed leadership came under serious threat Monday as government troops clashed with Shiite rebels near the presidential palace and a key military base in what one official called "a step toward a coup."
Houthi Shiite Yemeni gather while guarding a street leading to the presidential palace Tuesday in Sanaa, Yemen. Yemen's U.S.-backed leadership came under serious threat Monday as government troops clashed with Shiite rebels near the presidential palace and a key military base in what one official called "a step toward a coup."

SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Shiite rebels shelled the residence of Yemen's leader and swept into the nearby presidential palace Tuesday in what a top army commander said was an unfolding coup.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi - an important U.S. ally in the fight against the highly lethal Yemeni branch of al-Qaida that claimed responsibility for the newspaper-office attack in Paris - was unharmed, authorities said. But his grip on power appeared increasingly precarious.

The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, took over the capital Sanaa in September as part of a long power struggle with Hadi and effectively govern several other cities as well.

It was unclear whether they intend to seize power altogether or allow the internationally backed president to remain in office.

In a lengthy speech aired by the group's TV network, rebel leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said "all options are open" and the escalation "has no ceiling" if Hadi does not speed up implementation of a U.N.-brokered peace deal.

That deal would grant the Houthis greater power over a commission that has been assigned to draft a new constitution and outline a new federal system. Critics of the Houthis say they are using the U.N. deal as a pretext to seize more power.

In Washington, U.S. officials said the rebel violence is undermining American military and intelligence operations against the al-Qaida branch, which claimed to have carried out the attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo earlier this month that left 12 people dead in Paris.

Washington has long viewed the Yemeni branch, known as Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the global terror network's most dangerous affiliate.

On Tuesday, after an emergency meeting, the U.N. Security Council called for a lasting cease-fire and condemned the violence. In a statement approved by all 15 members, the council asserted that Hadi "is the legitimate authority."

The Houthis appear determined to redraw a 2012 road map backed by Arab Gulf states and the West that compelled then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down following months of Arab Spring-inspired protests against his three-decade rule.

The Houthis' expansion into Sunni-dominated areas of the country threatens to inject sectarianism into what until now has been mainly a struggle for power. Al-Qaida, which is at war with the Houthis and Hadi's forces, stands to benefit.

The latest escalation began early Monday, when heavy fighting broke out around the presidential palace and Hadi's residence, and the Houthis seized control of state-run media. The fighting left at least nine people dead and 67 wounded, Deputy Health Minister Nasser Baoum said.

A cease-fire took effect by the end of the day following hours of negotiations, but the truce broke down Tuesday afternoon when Hadi's residence came under heavy shelling, according to Yemeni officials.